Hirelings who provide skill/gameplay bonuses

Talk about the mods you'd like to see in Daggerfall Unity. Give mod creators some ideas!
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Cliffworms
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Hirelings who provide skill/gameplay bonuses

Post by Cliffworms »

A feature I like from the Might & Magic Series (from VI to VIII) is the companion system where ordinary citizens of various professions can accompany you and help you in various ways in exchange for a percentage of all gold acquired and a hiring cost. If it could be done for Daggerfall, I think it'd bring an interesting concept.

Some examples from M&M 6 :

Armorer : Can repair your gear on the go
Banker : 20% more gold found
Barrister : Bonus to Etiquette
Explorer : Reduced travel time when fast-travelling
Instructor : Faster skill progression
Trader : Bonus to Mercantile
Healer : Can cast a healing spell once a day


I have quest-writing knowledge, but not programming. How feasible would such an idea be?
Having the people accompany you is easy, but getting the benefits is something else.

l3lessed
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Re: Hirelings who provide skill/gameplay bonuses

Post by l3lessed »

This is doable using the current follower framework others have made and are using to create free wandering companions.

Once the new companions were created using that framework, a coder would need to setup a script that monitors what follower the player has currently and trigger the code that adds the bonuses based on the follow ID the player currently has with them. The bonus attributes is to me the easy part, as it would only require a simple few lines to monitor what follower the player has and then run a simple case switch or if then switch to apply the wanted affect. I'm guessing less than 100 lines of code.
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Cliffworms
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Location: Québec

Re: Hirelings who provide skill/gameplay bonuses

Post by Cliffworms »

That's interesting! Maybe I could ping Kab about this. :)

Thanks!

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Khanog Doombrew
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Re: Hirelings who provide skill/gameplay bonuses

Post by Khanog Doombrew »

Just wanted to say I think this is a fantastic idea. Will make a separate post about this, but I've been thinking for a while now what features could be yoinked from other RPGs of the era. Somehow, despite the Might & Magic series being one of the first I thought of in relation to this, the idea to use the companion system never occurred to me. Which, thinking about it, is weird since it's probably the most logical thing to implement into Daggerfall with how similar talking to wandering NPCs feels in both games.

imsobadatnicknames
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Re: Hirelings who provide skill/gameplay bonuses

Post by imsobadatnicknames »

This is a fantastic idea. One of my copanion mods, Lazerran the Alchemist, is somewhat (but not compeltely) similar to this idea. Once recruited as a companion (by completing a certain quest) Lazerran will travel with you. When you enter a dungeon Lazerran will stay behind and give you either an alchemy ingredient or a potion when you come back. More traditional companions that aid you in combat have also been made, like Ghaksha the Orc, Mercenaries, and More Fighters Guild Servcies (by me) or Belwen and Brallion (by knightwalker41). I definitely have a more extensive companion system in mind as one of my future plans, but sadly most of the things you propose are currently outside of my skillset because, just like you, I only have quest-writing knowledge and my coding knowledge is sparse (all the companion mods I've made so far have been made exclusively through the quest system).
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Daggerfall isn't the only ridiculously intrincate fantasy world simulator with the initials DF that I make mods for: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=177071.0

imsobadatnicknames
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Re: Hirelings who provide skill/gameplay bonuses

Post by imsobadatnicknames »

l3lessed wrote: Tue Apr 06, 2021 10:15 pm This is doable using the current follower framework others have made and are using to create free wandering companions.

Once the new companions were created using that framework, a coder would need to setup a script that monitors what follower the player has currently and trigger the code that adds the bonuses based on the follow ID the player currently has with them. The bonus attributes is to me the easy part, as it would only require a simple few lines to monitor what follower the player has and then run a simple case switch or if then switch to apply the wanted affect. I'm guessing less than 100 lines of code.
This is a REALLY good idea for implementation. I might not know much about C# coding but I think it'd be pretty easy too. E.g. in my Lazerran the Alchemist mod, there's a quest called LZTRAVEL which is what makes Lazerran travel with you. So if other hirelings were to be implemented with a similar system, all it would take to implement the bonuses would be for someone to write a piece of code that detects when one of the hirelings' quests is currently running and apply the appropriate bonus.
Released mods: https://www.nexusmods.com/users/5141135 ... files&BH=0
Daggerfall isn't the only ridiculously intrincate fantasy world simulator with the initials DF that I make mods for: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=177071.0

l3lessed
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Re: Hirelings who provide skill/gameplay bonuses

Post by l3lessed »

Yeah, it would be best if there was a common framework for setting up followers currently assigned to player, AKA a follower ID system. A quest system would probably be best. Each follower could be customized how modders want and then when recruited by whatever means the modder decides, it adds the quest to the player starting and running the follower code.

So, as said, at that point, the modder who wants to add custom effects like this merely needs to scan the quests to see if a certain follower is active and following (Quest is active) and then flip on the effect.

I wanted to work on a follower system, as I want actual walking followers that pathfind behind you using a basic spherecast system to detect surroundings. If I can ever get the time to do this, I would set it up as a framework for other modders to add their followers too and setup a method to track what followers the player has.
My Daggerfall Mod Github: l3lessed DFU Mod Github

My Beth Mods: l3lessed Nexus Page

Daggerfall Unity mods: Combat Overhaul Mod

Enjoy the free work I'm doing? Consider lending your support.

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